Reason #11 in my rapidly evolving 101 Reasons to Abolish School Boards from my site:
http://abolish-school-boards.org
11: School Board administration offices far exceed furniture standards in local schools.
Why the inequity? Where are the priorities? Does your school have shaky fiber-glass chairs for the children to sit in vs $800 chairs for once monthly trustee meetings?
Please see discussion in this online story from Sun Reporter, Janet Steffenhagen : Beautiful and Not So Beautiful Schools
And comment as below:
Wendy Smith said:
I have been in and out of many district administration centres over the years, going back to the years when they were simply called "board offices." I have yet to find any classroom or other student facility in any district which approaches their grandeur. Eight hundred dollar board chairs while kids sat in stackable fibreglass chairs, many of which were cracking and wobbly, birds’ eye maple board tables, expensive and unnecessary renovations–I’ve seen a lot of it. And, consistently, the schools in the lower-income areas of the district were particularly shoddy and shameful in comparison. I live for the day when students in each district are working in facilities equivalent in quality. Realistically, I know it will never happen. (I did, however, respect one superintendent who told me that he’d furnished his office at his own expense.)
Wrap it all up in whatever wrapping you choose. Check out your local district administration centre, then go to a school in an economically-deprived area in the district, check it out, and draw your own conclusions.
October 28, 2008
(PS: My Comment on this issue: Do we, in the social sciences, have a Hypocrisy Scale? If not, let’s design one. Tunya Audain)
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